Surprise To Arrogant Rulers

Just as it is in Washington DC, the mindset of our rulers in the State Capitols is that they can continuously raise taxes & fees all they want and everybody will just gladly pay them without altering their behavior. This is the infamous "static analysis" method of predicting tax revenue that I so often mention.

With many states in financial peril, they see an easy solution by making tobacco addicts pick up a bigger share of the burden. They figure addicts are a captive audience and will have no choice but to pay in order to continue getting their fix. Again, I am not a smoker; but I have always supported the freedom for people to do stupid things, such as using tobacco. I have long wondered why smokers have allowed themselves to be persecuted so harshly by those who want to force their personal opinions on everyone else (aka Tobacco Nazis).

This is why I am glad to see stories about smokers refusing to buckle under to the State Rulers and find ways around paying their extortion, such as bringing in cigarettes from low-tax states and buying them over the Internet. Unfortunately, I expect this opportunity to be short lived. It shouldn't be long before our rulers in DC levy huge Federal taxes on cigarettes, making it expensive to buy from anywhere in the entire country.

I guess the only real way around the high taxes would be to grow your own tobacco and roll your own cancer sticks.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 8/14/2002 09:51:00 AM Send this post: